Unmasking Virus Myths

Coronavirus Pandemic: Separate Fact & Fiction

- Matt Roper

As coronavirus spreads, so do all kinds of myths and rumours about the deadly disease.

From tips on how to know you have the infection to ways to protect yourself, the flood of information can leave us struggling to separate fact from fiction.

Here, we debunk some of the myths…

Face masks can protect you

The masks some people are choosing to wear won’t prevent infection by coronavirus, which is a miniscule 50-200 nanometres wide – so small that once airborne it will travel straight through your mask to the mouth and nose.

In fact, the surgical masks are made to protect others from the wearer’s coughs and sneezes, not the other way around.

And while heavy-duty masks used by medical staff have been shown to greatly cut the spread of the virus, the professionals who use them need training to properly fit them around their noses, cheeks and chins to ensure no air can sneak around the edges.

You need to be with an infected person for 15mins to catch it

While exposure to coronavirus is defined as being in close contact – more than 15 minutes face-to-face – with a victim, it is not the only way you can catch it.

It is possible to be infected with shorter interactions or even by picking the virus up from contaminated surfaces, although this is thought to be a less common route of transmission.

It’s no worse than normal flu

It is wrong to think the virus is no more dangerous than seasonal flu. Covid-19 is more deadly than the flu, which kills about 0.1% of those infected while coronavirus deaths are closer to 2%.

It also seems to spread more easily than seasonal flu. Each person infected appears to infect 2.2 people on average but for seasonal flu the number is 1.3.

And while there is a vaccine which is quite successful in preventing seasonal flu, no vaccine yet exists for Covid-19.